The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 12/17/2018

Episode Date: December 17, 2018

Colin has been saying for weeks that the Rams weren't the best team in LA and now everyone else is seeing it too. He learned nothing new from the Cowboys shutout loss to the Colts. Plus, Super Bowl Champion Trent Dilfer explains why the Eagles are more successful when Nick Foles is their QB. Presented by Perky Jerky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

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Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. you just understood.

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to her. He's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.

This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to the Best of Heard Podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday. From 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRadio.com

or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching herd. This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowherg on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, this on a Monday is the herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1, one hour from now where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong, plenty of both. Joy Taylor is joining me as always on a Monday, which, It was, we thought, you know what? We thought this was going to be clinch weekend.

Everybody clinches the playoffs. It was chaos weekend. It certainly was. Next weekend, Joy, 14 of the 16 NFL games, somebody will clinch. So we thought this weekend was going to be clinch weekend. It was entertaining, though. It was wildly entertaining. Let me start with this.

Rams looked awful for most of the game and lost. Two months ago, on this show, I peeled back off the Rams. I said, I don't buy this team. Too much glitz. Too much glamour. Too many stars. No depth.

They'll pay a price for this. Everybody was slobbering over Sean McVeigh, smarter than everybody else. What has this team done? They never won a playoff game. Folks, here's the truth about the Rams. They're building a $5 billion stadium, the most expensive stadium in America. And they just brought the team to town. They are selling PSLs like Craves.

crazy and they signed stars and overpaid for them so they can sell personal seat licenses and pay some of the bill. It's a lot of sales pitch. It's a lot of glamour. It's a lot of glitz. The Chargers cross town have none of it and have a much deeper roster and a much better roster. Endomican Sue no longer productive. Akeeb Talib, like him a lot, past his prime.

Dante Fowler was a bust in Jacksonville and they gave up draft picks for him. Brandon Cook's receiver disappears in big games third team three years ask yourself if I'm wrong and this is not about sales pitch and glitz what have they accomplished in the last two years with McVeigh head coach of the year offensive player of the year defensive player of the year special teams coach of the year all personal accomplishments no playoff wins four and five last two years in December why because they have no depth If you overpay for anything in any business, you overpay for employees, you overpay for parts, you overpay for services rendered, you overpay on your lease. If you overpay on stuff, you're going to have to save money elsewhere. They don't have any depth. The chargers don't have the stars across town, but they have depth, three great receivers, four running backs who can play.

Rams have one, Todd Gurley. Hurts an ankle, limps a little, they're toast. Now I got nothing against the Rams. I think the Rams are interesting. I think they're good. But a lot of this story so far is sales pitch and glamour and oh wow and personal accomplishments. December and January in the NFL, okay, attrition sets in. Who's good right now?

The Bears. The Bears have one star player and a bunch of good, cheap young players in depth. Baltimore. Who are Baltimore stars? They got a lot of depth. Chargers. I mean, their star? Philip Rivers?

I mean, Boas is a good player, but he didn't play for like two and a half months. This is the time of the year when you need depth and that overpaid, marginally productive stars aren't worth it. I think the Rams actually are very lucky. They're in a division where Arizona is in a complete rebuild. And San Francisco lost their quarterback and is in a rebuild.

In Seattle, it's in a marginal rebuild, but they're still in a rebuild. Okay? So can they turn it around? I think this is their reality. They have a $5 billion stadium. They're brand new to town in a very competitive market

with the Dodgers and LeBron and the Lakers and a lot of college teams and they got to sell PSLs and they got a $5 billion stadium and they overpaid for a lot of guys you've heard of in Domenon & Sue, Akeep Tilly, Brandon Cooks was on the Saints, it was on the Patriots, he was in playoff games. In the end, I got no depth.

And people are figuring them out and they become a target. And we're always talking about how great they are and how smart they are. McVeigh is not the smartest young coach in the league Matt Nagy in Chicago is. He's pulling birds out of a hat with Mitch Trubisky. Here was Sean McVeigh after the game. We've got to be able to figure this out and figure it out fast because these last couple weeks, We're doing things that are totally uncharacteristic of what good football teams do, what we've done through the first handful of games this season.

Everybody's got a hand in this and we've got to get it figured out fast. They're not a terrible team. They're going to win their division. They'll probably be at home and win a playoff game. I'm not saying they can't play, but I'm telling you what's going on here. This is a sales pitch. It is giving up draft picks for a Bust in Jacksonville, Dante Fowler. It's spending massive money for Brom,

Brandon Cooks, who's never done anything in a big game. Belichick and Sean Payton bailed on him. I like Akib Talib in Domen, Sue. He's more brand than football player right now. I didn't do anything. Depth, don't have any. All right, let me shift gears to this. One of the reasons I like the NFL more than college football, I learn stuff.

Seasons are long. Team start hot. They have injuries. You learn a lot during NFL season. This weekend is we thought we were going to get. all the clinching, it was all the chaos. Let me ask you, yesterday the Cowboys get shut out. People are freaking out. What did we really learn about the Dallas Cowboys yesterday? Dax Limited? We all kind of knew that, right? Other than the fanboys?

They lost on the road off emotional wins with less to play for and a team with a superstar quarterback. You do realize Las Vegas favored the Colts. It was our bet of the week. fanboys and pom-pom waivers in the media got shocked. Every pro gambler in America was on the Colts. There was no new discovery here. Dallas has had one transformational moment this year. That win over New Orleans. Yesterday, shut out by the Colts,

didn't learn anything. That doesn't mean anything. I look for games when I learned something. You know what I learned yesterday in the Colts Cowboys game? that the Colts' offensive lines and defensive lines with a bunch of young guys are way ahead of schedule. Like, this is a rebuilding year for the Colts. We didn't even know if Andrew Luck's soup bone was good.

It was rebuild the O line, rebuild the D line, and then they'll have a bunch of cap space. Oh, hell. Yesterday I'm watching that game. I'm watching their own line. Running lanes wide open. I'm watching their D line. Big pressure on DAC.

That's the only thing. thing we learned yesterday that Indianapolis is ahead of schedule on their rebuild. By the way, the Colts have now shut out and dominated a division leader Cowboys and then snapped an eight, nine game winning streak with another division leader Texans the week before. Don't get caught up in the shut out. Excuse me, but didn't the Colts get shut out three weeks ago? We didn't learn anything in that game. When the Colts got shut out by the Jags, I didn't even talk about it. Why? Is Andrew Luck suddenly no good?

They were on the road against a talented defense coming off some emotional wins. They had some nice, before that emotional wins. They went on the road. They didn't match the urgency of Jacksonville. And they went down there and the Jack got defensive players and pressure and they got overwhelmed and didn't score a thing. And who cares? Well, you forget about it. A week later, nobody cared.

Nobody cares about this Dallas game. the Colts had a lousy road shut out three weeks ago. Indy now is the story. They are eight insects. Their O-line and D-line are way ahead of schedule. They've got the New York Giants who looked like yesterday. They kind of mailed it in season over coming up next. Dallas is exactly what we thought they were going into the game.

Really good young defensive talent. especially in the front seven, superstar running back, who needs to play really, really well and give you about 130, 150 yards for DAC to be more effective. But if DAC doesn't get Zeke's 140 yards,

didn't, doesn't get Amari Cooper breaking tackles for touchdowns, didn't. The Cowboys had more than average penalties, did. Well, Dak's not going to do much against an aggressive young defense that's way better than anybody thought at this point.

The reason I like the NFL, more than college football, I feel like I learn things week to week. It's a week-to-week league. Alabama Clemson going to play for the national title again. I'm not learning much. Dallas is fine. They're going to be a playoff team. They're going to host a playoff game. And if it's low scoring and DAC get support, they'll win that game.

But if Zeeke runs for 80 yards and they have a few penalties and Amari Cooper gets doubled and taken away, then Dallas won't win a playoff game. And what I learned, you don't want any part of Indianapolis. They are playing with house money. Be very careful about these young teams that are ahead of schedule that aren't supposed to be good until next year, the Colts playing with no pressure, a red-hot quarterback, a coach and a quarterback aligned

with tremendously talented rookies and first-year players all over the roster. That's the only thing I learned. Be sure to catch live edition. of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the I heart radio app. New England.

I know what you think. Oh, Colin, that's stung. Yeah, I was surprised yesterday. I said Friday. I don't think this is much of a rivalry, but Pittsburgh, I thought, was buttoned up down the stretch. Kind of reestablished a running game, which is amazing. They've got, you know, Pittsburgh classic. Big game, step

up. You know, if they played Tampa Bay next week, they'd probably lose by two touchdowns. That's Pittsburgh. But a couple of years ago, I started mentioning this, I noticed a trend with Tom Brady. But as he is aged, his December's, he looks tired. He loses zip on his arm. And sure enough, I went and looked it up, and he has his lowest completion percentage month is December, his most interceptions in December, fewest yards per game in December, his passer ratings lowest in December. And what do I take from this? This is how you age.

unless you're on cattle steroids. Yeah, in baseball, 37-year-old guys suddenly played like they were in their prime. On the tour to France, guys who were older literally could scale them out in like Superman. But if you're not on cattle steroids, this is how Tim Duncan aged. This is how Tom Brady is aging. He is still good. He's good. And he still has moments of great.

but as the season wears on, it's a long season. And by December, Tom could use a couple of weeks off. He could use a buy week. He could really use about six days and not throw in the football. For the record, Belichick, you do realize he was furious that he had to trade Jimmy Garoppolo. Because Tom Brady has become the kind of player Belichick moves off of. good, aging, expensive, and you want to get rid of them a year or too early, not a year or too late.

Belichick wanted to have Jimmy Garapolo ready for right now. And this would be Tom's last year. Instead, they have no backup quarterback and an aging quarterback who was no longer pushed by Jimmy Garoppolo. This is not all Brady's fault. Outside of Trey Flowers, their front seven defensively is completely average. This is not all Brady's fault. Edelman passed his prime, too many drops,

gronks a non-factor in most games. Josh Gordon's your deep threat, really? This is not all Brady's issue. For years, he's been taking pay cuts, which means they should have talent everywhere around him. And they don't. But Tom is simply not good enough to squeeze 12 to 13. wins out of an average roster.

I think Tom this year will squeeze 10 wins out of an average roster. But they're not good enough to go on the road and beat good teams. They're not going to go on the road if they had to go on the road and play Baltimore in a playoff game. They're not good enough. They're not good enough if they were in the NFC to go to Chicago and win at this time of the year, December when Tom is getting worn out. So I think they'll squeeze 10 wins out of this thing.

Some of this is on Belichick. Brady's been taking pay cuts forever. Where are the players? Where are they? Devin McCordy's talented. Trey Flowers is good. Where are the players? Where are you spending the money?

He's whiffed on draft picks. But New England now is just a good team. With a quarterback who's aging, who could use absolutely a couple of bi-weeks now, some days not to throw, to hydrate, rest, hang out with. with his kids. Brady looks like he's looked the last four to five years in December. But now what's around him, despite his pay cuts, is really average. And he is simply not at the point

in his career where he can carry average. Andrew Luck can. I mean, Patrick Mahomes has the energy for the next seven years to do that. There are guys around this league that can do that. Tom's not one of them. And this is how dynasties end for the Spurs and the Patriots when your star is not on steroids. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m.

Pacific. So Chicago is going to win their division. I thought it was a big win for them yesterday because they have the better players and the better roster. They were at home, better momentum. A younger quarterback right now. And he appears to be

healthier. Aaron Rogers heard again yesterday by end of the game. Listen, this is the way it works. Chicago's got a bunch of good young players. Rokwan Smith, the rookie linebacker, Tariq Cohen, the running back, Eddie Jackson, Leonard Floyd, Packers 0-1-7 on the road. They feel like kind of a team that needs to be rebooted. Chicago's not going anywhere. And Aaron Rogers, for a decade, had this window when his division was utter dysfunction. were a mess. Detroit was a mess. Minnesota couldn't get their act together. And in that window, Aaron, to his credit, dominated the NFC North and won a Super Bowl. But that's over now. Green Bay's new reality going forward. Chicago is like the Dallas Cowboys. A bunch of good

young players, most of them on defense, and they're not real expensive yet. They have a superstar pass rusher that Green Bay will never be able to block. They won't. Chicago's got the better coach. Chicago's quarterback's never going to make $33 million a year guaranteed. The new reality in that division. I'm not saying Chicago is going to win it every year, but there is a new reality for Green Bay. They are paying their quarterback the most, which will make their roster have to be younger and cheaper. Their quarterback is now 35 years old. Their quarterback was gimpy yesterday and I would probably sit Aaron for the rest of the year. Aaron says he doesn't want to be sat for the rest of the year. But Aaron Rogers is becoming Brett Farve. Got a Super Bowl

in the first decade. But then Aaron Rogers and Farve are getting older, more annoying little injuries. They both got very expensive. They were harder to coach. They were still iconic ad livers, sometimes to their detriment. And they didn't win out of land. The Packers are 0 and 7 on the road this year. This is the new reality. Be very careful. Windows closed. Jacksonville, remember what I told you?

I didn't buy Jacksonville. Andrew Luck and Deshawn Watson got hurt. Their window was about this big for about 10 games. And they got to the AFC championship game. Tom Brady closed their window. Andrew Luck came back. Deshawn Watson came back. And they got Blake Portals.

So right now, Jacksonville has the fourth best quarterback in their division. I'm not saying Green Bay won't be good. Aaron Rogers is good enough to win with very few parts. They have a really nice home field advantage. And if you go look at the Packers over the years, they tend to do a pretty good job drafting. I'm not saying they're going to be in fourth or third place forever. But the layup line for the Packers is over.

They were in a 10-year lay-up line. The lions were a dysfunctional mess. The Bears were a dysfunctional mess. And Vikings had good ownership, but couldn't get it right. Vikings have a real good coach and a real good roster and a good enough quarterback to win a division. Chicago's got talent everywhere

and the best coach in their division and a quarterback who's never going to make $33 million. So the layup line is over. And by the way, Dallas is good, the Rams are good, Philadelphia Eagles are going to be good, the NFC is better than it's ever been. So you've got to take advantage to it. You know, Brady, by the way,

Tom Brady's had a layup line for 15 years. the best quarterback he's faced in his division's Chad Pennington for like two decades. Do you watch Sam Darnold Saturday? You get Sam Darnold of the Jets some talent. Tom Brady's layup lines over too. Now, Brady really took advantage of it. Brady really took advantage of it. You can't expect Tom to win anymore.

Once Darnold gets pieces offensively, it's over for Tom. And that could happen depending on how they draft and how they have huge cap space. But the layup line for the Packers is done. And I've been saying this. Aaron Rogers would never want to be compared to Favre. They've become the same guy. They really have. They chopped it up for 10 years, got a Super Bowl.

And, I mean, they really did. Their first 10 years, they both have a Super Bowl, both have multiple MVPs, both had 9 out of 10 winning seasons, and both made 6 Pro Bowls. Their first 10 years looked exactly the same. All I'm saying is, their last five are also going to look the same. Rogers is hurt again. He's 35. Kaleo Max going nowhere.

Chicago's players like Dallas are. all good mostly on defense and they're cheap right now. So now Chicago's a fun story. Listen, I work at Fox. We have the NFC. It is very good for us that the Chicago Bears and the Dallas Cowboys. Now, both have, they're kind of the same team. The Bears and the Cowboys, I think, have quarterbacks with very low ceilings, Mitch Trubisky

and Dak Prescott. But the Bears and the Cowboys are loaded on defense. Want more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. All right. Here we go. It's a Monday where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. Where Colin was right? Best year, Blazing 5. Second best year statistically, but I feel like it's my best year. Another winning week, three and two. We picked the Colts to upset the Dalles Cowboys. We pick Cleveland to do something they don't do.

leave Ohio and win a football game over Denver. And we'd love the Titans over the New York Giants. Still scratching my head over that Rams performance, but we're close to 60% on the year. And that is good enough to be a professional sports gambler if I wanted to do that. Where Colin was wrong. I completely whiffed on the NFC North. I predicted the Packers would win it, and the Bears would be abysmal.

Well, the Bears are going to win it going away, and Green Bay is now abysmal. Yeah, I was not close. told me Aaron Rogers for the second straight year was not going to make the playoffs, I didn't buy it. If you told me Mitch Trubisky, I mean, I watched Mitch Trubisky last year with John Fox. They look like a college quarterback that was over his head. Minnesota is the only team in this division I've gotten right, but no team has shocked me and surprised me like the Chicago Bears. That's why I think Matt Nagy's the coach of the year.

Where Colin was right. But we did tell you two months ago, the Chargers Ross was better than the Rams. We've been saying this now for two months. They're stacked. They have three legit star receivers. Two big time running backs. Two pass rushers. I talked to a buddy of mine who's an NFL scout.

I said, what's their weakness? He goes, I don't love their guards. Like, they are good everywhere. And unlike previous charger teams, they don't turn the ball over and give games away. Second fewest giveaways in the NFL. This team doesn't have the glitz, doesn't have the glamour.

This is the best football team, top to bottom in Los Angeles, the Chargers. Where Colin was wrong. Listen, I knew Baker Mayfield could play and win games. I said it as a rookie. Lamar Jackson, shocker. Look, I just thought he relied too much on running. I said, he can't be running around 18 times a game.

Now, he's been nicked up a couple of times, and I don't think it's sustainable to run 18 times a game. I think if he can get through this season healthy, then next year they'll scale back in the running and develop his passing. But he leads the Ravens in rushing. He is four and one as a starter. He's very close to be in five and oh as a starter. He could have won that game in Kansas City. He has no interceptions in his last three games. He's obviously, as Bobby Petrino told everybody, but he's very coachable. Greg Roman, the offensive coordinator, has been around the league for a long time.

You know, I saw him more as a second, third round quarterback who you've got to sit for a year. He's been terrific. And now, now, slide, please, RG3, didn't learn to slide. Andrew Locke didn't learn to slide. Please learn to slide in the offseason. You will extend your career. Where Colin was right. People wanted him to be a wide receiver. No, no, no, no. He is fast, though. Where Colin was right, listen, we were the first person to show to bail on the Rams. And we said, it's a lot of hot dogging on defense. It's a lot of freelancing. I think Todd Gurley is great, but how many, you know, give him the ball 300 times? I like Jared Gop, but he's still young.

And I think there's, you know, I watched this Rams team. They gave up 8.7 yards of pass to Nick Foles. Isn't the secondary supposed to be their strength? Sam Shields and the keep to leave and Marcus Peters and the young safeties? I thought their secondary was supposed to be their strength. And in Domenu and Aaron Donald, you'd never be able to run on them. Everybody runs on them. We bailed on them a couple of months ago.

their names are bigger than their production. Where Colin was wrong. It's not that the Steelers beat New England. We were wrong on that. But they ran the football. And no running game last couple of weeks. And it's kind of, you know, listen, I was joking about this Friday. I don't even consider it a rivalry. But, you know, we're going to have Ben Volan on in five, ten minutes here.

Patriots writer. He thinks the dynasty's over. I think it's close to over. But I got to be honest. who was making the mistakes down the stretch. It was New England. The Steelers were buttoned up down the stretch. The Steelers made their mistakes on two back-to-back plays in the first half. They were buttoned up after that.

They were focused after that. They made the big plays after that. A couple of great catches by young receivers. That game looked the opposite. I thought it would be New England that would make the plays late. New England would not have the penalties late. and I was wrong. Where Colin was right?

I don't think I've ever I know this for a fact. I've never predicted an entire conference as accurately as I predicted the AFC. I had the Steelers win in their division, the Patriots went in theirs, the Texans win in theirs, and then I said,

keep your eyes on the Indianapolis Colts and the Baltimore Ravens. Now, I was not great on the Chiefs. I said they'd be 500 because I'd never seen Patrick Mahomes play a season. So I said, if he's great, my bad. but by and large, if you look at our predictions in the AFC, we have nailed it down to the wildcard teams.

We said Baltimore and Indy are going to be way better than Vegas thinks, and they have been way better than Vegas thinks, and the teams leading the division are pretty much the teams we said that would lead the division. Where Colin was wrong. I love Carson Wentz, and I always say, you know, Nick Foles isn't in his league, but I got to be honest. Nick Foles does something because Carson Wence gets zoned in on Zach Ertz the Tide End. But there is something between Nick Foles and Alshan Jeffrey Jeffrey and they just connect.

Whatever that relationship is at practice, personal relationship, I have no idea. Maybe the coaches are more comfortable with Alshan Jeffrey throws from Nick Foles. But, you know, I keep going out and saying Wence is a superstar and Nick's a backup at best. but there is something to be said about what happens when Nick Foles takes over, and you look at Philadelphia's offense last night, it's 6.2 yards of play with Nick Foles. You get 6.2 yards of play in the NFL. You're not going to lose on a lot of Sundays.

Where Colin was right? Matt Nagy, not Sean McVeigh, is the young hotshot coach we should be paying attention to. I like McVeigh. But the media, you know what, McVeigh's good-looking, he's in Los Angeles, he's more glamorous. Well, guess what? The Chicago guy that doesn't have the high perfect model cheekbones is taking Mitch Trubisky, Alan Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Anthony Miller, and they're sixth in points. And by the way, pro football focus says they're eight best players are all defensive players.

Now, I know he's not as hip as McVeigh. probably doesn't have the, you know, the cheekbones, but Matt Nagy is the guy that has taken pretty solid but not spectacular offensive pieces, and they are sixth in points. And not only that, they've had a tough schedule. You know, at a conference, they had to play Jets' defense is a real defense. Bill's defense is a real defense. They play the dolphins in Miami.

They had to face New England. Real team. Matt Nagy, congrats to you. Real team. that I'd totally whiffed on. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the I-Hard Radio app.

Friday on the show, I said, you're going to see Andrew Luck, and you're going to see Dak Prescott. And Dak Prescott is going to be driving a Lamborghini to work. He's got a great front seven. He's got an elite left tackle, a superstar running back, a true number one. It's got pro bowlers everywhere.

And the defense is better. and Andrew Luck's driving a Camry. He's got one really nice wide receiver who drops it too much for my taste. But Eric Ebron is tied end was a semi-bust in Detroit. Marlon Max's a fourth rounder, two rookies on the offensive line, best defensive players are rookie, and they were on full display. And Andrew Luck, seven years in the NFL, has still never had the weapons that Dak Prescott has

and completely dominated him yesterday. is that I wish fans, and sometimes the media, would understand. Bucky Brooks is a former player. Bucky Brooks has a great line. He says, quarterbacks are tractors or their trailers. Andrew Luck is a tractor. He can pull a team. Dak Prescott's a trailer.

Good teammates pull him. Here's Bucky Brooks on our show about a year ago. Quarterbacks come in two forms. They're either trucks or their trucks. or their trailers, meaning trucks, they can carry the team. It doesn't matter what they have around them. They can still find a way to get you to the winter circle. Trailers are guys who have to depend on the rest of the pieces around them to really support them.

The overwhelming majority of the league are trailers. It's just, do you have the people around you that can put the pieces in place that allow you to play at a high level? And yesterday they were parked right next to each other. The truck and the trailer were parked right next to each other. By the way, Zeke had 85 yards. That's not bad, but DAC needs more. Amari Cooper had four catches. That's not bad.

Dak needs more. His offensive line was still better than Lux, but one of his stars like Zach Martin's out. And this was a classic example. Add context to it. Lamar Jackson's 4-1 as a starter. He's got way better coaching and players than Sam Darnel does. add context to quarterback discussions.

This was a great example of a Lamborghini park next to a Camry. And what luck has been able to do for seven years in this league, he just finally has an offensive line. Look at his numbers. They still need a number two receiver. They'll probably consider Levian Bellet running back. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe not fit their culture.

They still need, you know, a pass rusher. They still need to be better defensively up front at linebacker. So we too often have no context to what these guys do. I like parts of DAC, but he entered this league with the best offensive line and probably the best running back in football. Luck has still never had anything close to resembling that. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. We go to a guy who played in this league.

for a decade and a half a pro bowl or a Super Bowl winner via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Trent Dilfer. All right. I look to you for wisdom on these Mondays. Brady's decline. I don't want to overreact to it,

but we got 40-year-old guy. Gronk and Edelman are past the prime. I mean, Gronk's perhaps in his last year. Do you see light at the end of the tunnel for New England the rest of the year? I actually do. And I also see all the things have been talked about. doesn't look right. They look older than they have in the past. They look slower than they have

in the past. But I also think they've also gone through a change schematically. I believe they entered this season really trying to go old school at their offense. And it fit their personal at the time. Big offensive linements and the biggest offensive alignment they've had in a long time. A new running back, multiple running backs, but a new guy in Sonia Michelle, that's a really young, a good young player. Not sure. what was going to happen at the, at the wide receivers position, outside the numbers especially. So they tried to play a ball control, slow the game down, player of the personnel, and mainly protect their defense offense.

And it hasn't worked when it doesn't really fit what Tom Brady does best. Can he do it? Absolutely. And there's times he looks spectacular doing it. But what he does best and where I think they will go here for the next two weeks and in the playoffs is more of their old spread uptempo offense, where they spread, you boundary to boundary with running backs, tight ends displaced outside receivers, and create more space. And when you do that, it does a couple things.

It's what makes them best. One, it gives Gromk more room to work with. It takes advantage of his size more than playing him in a scrub. It allows James White be much more involved in the offense. And what happens there is more run after catch. It allows Edelman to work the middle of field without help defenders, where he's great one-on-one. And what I think it will do is it'll allow Josh Gordon now to be the explosive guy.

It'll move from Gromk being the guy that used to go to explosive plays with to Gordon. And they can move them now that he's integrated in the offense from the perimeter inside, which you saw the Steelers do yesterday with Antonio Brown, where they lined them up in the tight end position or the slot position's great big plays. I think if they go spread, what you'll see is these older guys now take advantage of what they do best, use their brains, use decision-making, use the space on the field, and just say, hey, we're willing to get in the shootouts. And I'll take the Patriots in that situation. Yeah, more James White, less, Sony-Michel, perhaps.

Okay, Rams. Are the Rams fools gold? I think they're fools gold because nobody else is great. Again, they have massive holes. They're terrible against the run. Those two great interior defense alignment, all they care about is hitting the quarterback. They're out of position all the time. The linebacker level isn't stout.

Foleyed around. The secondary is getting run by. I see all the same stuff. At the same time, they have difference makers on defense. And if they play well offensively and you get ahead of you, then those difference makers can really have an impact. Offensively, they're obviously in a funk. But I give Sean McVeigh a lot of credit. I think he'll be a lot like Bill Belichick and the other great coaches in this league. They'll do a great self-scout this week. And they'll go back, six, seven, eight weeks, and they'll look at trends, what's made them good, what's made them bad. And they'll start morphing their offense back into what the players do best. And I think the Rams can make a run just because they're that explosive offensively.

By the way, the two teams that kind of look the same to me are the Cowboys and the Bears, where most of their top players are on defense. In fact, I think pro football focus has the Bears eight best players on defense. And they have quarterbacks that we've briefly elevated. But I think Dak and Tribesky have low ceilings. I think the Bears and Cowboys are the same team. What say you? I'd add the Ravens to that mix, too.

I think there's buckets right now. I think depending on what happens tonight, tonight there's a chance for the Saints to just distance themselves and put their flag in the ground and say, we're the only great team in football. If they can do that, then I'd put a bathtub full of teams that could possibly make a run. And then within that bathtub, there's two different buckets.

There's the high ceiling, low floor buckets. There's your chiefs. There's your Rams. There's some of those teams. There's your low ceiling, high floor. teams. Those are your Cowboys, Ravens, Bears. I totally agree with you. But right now, nobody's great in the NFL. Everybody has massive holes, not just holes. And we've talked about this, I think every week. That's what happens. You're paying your quarterback,

$25 million. It's not enough money to spread around to have quality death. But I think the other thing that's going on, too, is there's not a head coach in this league that on a Monday afternoon, as they're watching films a Tuesdays or game planning going, oh, we got this one. we know we're better than the team we're playing. I mean, Pete Carroll had to play the Niners this week, and you think the Seahawks are way better than the Niners, I guarantee Pete Carroll is like, oh, my gosh, I can see 10 ways if we can lose this game.

Yeah. You know, every coach is looking at it's like, we're not that good. We have to play a very particular way, a very specific way in order to win. And if we get outside of that formula, we can be in trouble. Explain to me, Michael Vic did earlier. I love Carson Wentz, and I think Nick Foles is a world-class, best backup in the league with Jacoby Brissette.

That's what I think he is. Maybe I'm wrong. But when Foles plays and Wentz sits, Al-Shon Jeffrey's better. Like, what's going on with Philadelphia? I think this is a common trend I've seen for years now. What happens is coaches naturally rely too much on their superstar quarterback. There's a natural laziness that goes into the week of preparation. And the conversations go something like this.

Do we want to work another two hours on trying to figure out five to eight scheme-driven plays that can give us some free offense or do we just want to trust our dude? Because our dude comes through all the time, whether he's Andrew Luck, Carson, Wentz, Tom Brady, Drew Bray's, yada, yada, yada, and they stop it. Let's just trust our dude. He'll make plays. We need him to make plays. And then the backup comes in.

they're like, whoa, we have to help this guy. We have to do a lot of stuff offensively to get others involved and really help him out. This has to be a coach-driven game more than a quarterback-driven game. The problem I have with that is that if you go to Bill Walls, Bill Walls, treated Joe Montana and Steve Young exactly the same. He was still going to try to help him. Mike Marks, no matter who his quarterback was, was always going to search and grind to find the best schemes and help him.

I think what happens too often is we think these quarterbacks, I've used this a million times they're using it, have Superman capes on. Like they literally can do anything. And what they'll all tell you is, no, we'd love some help. We'd love 10 freebies a game. We'd love you some coach-centric offense to make our job a little bit easier. But sometimes that doesn't happen. So when Nick Bowles comes in, all of a sudden, I'm watching them do some stuff schematically. Why I haven't seen that the last few weeks?

No wonder guys are getting wide open. Imagine if they did that when they had first and wins. Trend Dill for a decade and a half in the NFL, Pro Bowl, Super Bowl. My coach of the year is Matt Nagy. I think he's doing more offensively with less. Sean McVeigh is doing some cool stuff, but he's got more to work with. I think they're a great story. But let's talk about Green Bay that lost 0 and 7 on the road this year.

Yesterday, Aaron got nicked up a little, 35 years old. The last couple of years banged up. He's now very expensive. If I said to you, next five years for Aaron, Aaron Rogers. What are they going to look like, Trent? Depends who comes in there. And we talked about this couple of weeks ago. This has to be a strong person now. This has to be somebody's going to come in and say, you know, Aaron, we're going to do everything we can to help you. We're going to make this more quarterback friendly.

We're going to work our butts off because you can have success. But you're going to play the game our way. And you're going to do this our way. This has to be a staff that comes in and earns his respect. But at the same time demands and polls a ton out of him. There's so much more in the tank than what we're seeing from Marin Rogers. It has truly become a frenetic sandbox type offense. He doesn't look comfortable. He doesn't trust the people around him. He doesn't trust his scheme. This needs to look a lot more like the Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears than it does what you're watching right now. By the way, you said this to me in a text about two, two, three months ago, man, the

chargers are good, aren't they? Holy. Holy Trent, backs, receivers, corners, are they good enough to win the Super Bowl, not having a home game? If they're healthy, they're just so nicked up, and they got to get healthy. Imagine if they get all these pieces together,

Tina Allen with the hit pointer now. They've missed score in the last couple weeks. But yeah, they have depth at the skill position, offensively, on the offensive line. They're way more physical. And that's what I saw early in the year.

They're way more physical than they've ever been. And Philip is making better decisions. He's processing fast. Christopher. Philip was always the guy that read everything deep to short. I mean, he was always looking to pull out the machete on every play. And now he's pulling out the scalpel. Now he's willing to go into death by a thousand cuts and just nick you to death. And his decision making, if he can maintain that, and it slipped a little bit the other night, but if he can maintain that high level decision making with offensive talent they have, and then again, a defense that

has a difference maker at all three levels, defensive front, the lineback position, and now the secondary position with Derwin-Janes. You don't have to be great on defense. You just have to have enough difference makers that make big plays at big times. Yeah, and it is a bizarre story where they don't really have a true home field advantage. Trent Dill, for great talking to you, bud. Thanks, brother. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where sports slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports, giving you the real story behind the headline.

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